Bridge Under Fire lets it all out with Gluttons Before Grace

Syracuse punk-rock band Bridge Under Fire doesn’t hold anything back with the album Gluttons Before Grace. The 11-cut album released this month by L.R.S. Records is an interesting collection of contrasts. Mark Turley, Jeff Walker, Chris Whitmore and Steve Lowe collaborate for a musical stew that can be rock with a tender sweetness. Guitars ring…

A crushing discovery, but I still get a pass

I lost my work ID last week, complete with the lanyard that goes around my neck and my library card that also hangs upon it. Seeing that I work at the Liverpool Public Library, that presented a problem. No, I did not want anybody checking out books, DVDs or CDs under my name. Or getting…

This time Steve goes big

Two weeks in a row, Limp Lizard swept all seven points in the Thursday Night Men’s League at Bowling Green in North Syracuse. Two weeks in a row, one of my teammates rolled an amazing series. This time around, Steve threw a 246-221-247-714, following Tiny’s fantastic 742 of the prior week. And the three-game total…

Gusty dusk in Galeville

I’ve talked here before about the big wind that visits around A Bitty Better in the Galeville neighborhood of Liverpool. When I got home from work at the library on Friday, it was acting up again. How best to show the gale of Galeville, I wondered. I saw and heard the flags outside the Salina…

Natalie Portman pours her soul into Jackie

Natalie Portman deserves every honor that comes her way for Jackie. She takes this complicated part from the mind of director Pablo Larrain and pen of screenwriter Noah Oppenheim and makes sure audiences for sure think yes, that is what we remember of our Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in this critical time of U.S. history, be…

A lovely look to the library’s street

When I left work Friday afternoon, there was still enough light left to jog down to Onondaga Lake Park to take some pictures with my iPhone 6s. OK, I walked briskly from the cold. No jogging for me. The lake photos I’ll save for another post. Tulip Street upon my return provided the perfect image…

Plugging the hole, or sometimes you must vent

When my dear wife Karen and I moved into A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville, the master bedroom came equipped with one gaping hole. At the bottom was where the heat came out. At the top we saw the plug from the mounted TV … in the living room on the other…

Baseball, please, Hot Stove style

The Syracuse Chiefs Hot Stove Dinner warmed me up for the 2017 baseball season last Friday night. When my dear wife Karen asked me if I’d like her to say yes to two tickets offered to her at her job at Syracuse Media Group, I said yes in a flash. This baseball fan was ready…